Two Times The Charm
by AwesomeAnimeCat
Summary: When Tony dies he's not sure what to expect - being reborn with everyone he knows was not particularly high on his list - being reborn as a girl was something he hadn't even considered. Of course some reunions are brilliant, some not-so-good and some... well not-so-good is putting it optimistically.
1. Prologue

A/N: Okay, I just want to say this is my first time writing a proper fanfiction (I've written other ones for a joke but not from an actual fandom) so it's probably not the best. Also, I haven't had anyone proof-read it so yeah… If you see any grammar issues/spelling errors please tell me and I'll fix it. Also, Tony is seriously OOC in this part sorry… Hopefully, next chapter will be better. Anyways I shall leave you now. Au revoir!

When Tony died he went out with a bang. The explosion sent shards of glass from the windows flying in every direction, the building shook from the force of it and dust rained down from the ceiling. The sheer power of the explosion would be enough to injure anyone but it was, of course, Tony's lucky day and this meant that, of course, he had to leave incredibly dangerous chemicals within exploding distance while he was doing this experiment. Of course. And, of course, they had to splash all over him and… well… It wasn't pretty.

At least, Tony thought to himself. It was by my own hand. He sighed. Well, he would've if he could but he technically wasn't alive so he technically wasn't breathing so he technically couldn't breathe and - Who's he kidding? He's dead! There's nothing technical about it.

What would Pepper say if she saw him now? Pepper… He would miss her… Would she miss him? He didn't know.

All he saw was white in all directions. He wanted to move, wanted to walk one last time, run once more, take one more breath… Strange how you never appreciate the little things, the things you take for granted until they're gone.

How did he get himself in such a mess? He didn't want to die cowering in his lab, he didn't want to die from one of his ridiculously dangerous experiments going wrong. He wanted to die heroically, saving a child from a burning building, or jumping in the way of a killing blow meant for another person, or flying a missile through a portal into space…

Yeah maybe not.

But still, he didn't want to die alone, no one knowing where he was or what he was doing… Except JARVIS but did JARVIS count? He had muted him beforehand anyway so it wasn't like he was talking to anyone. God, he should stop thinking, he's just going to make himself miss them all the more and think about the fact that now he's dead he can't talk to them – Pepper, Rhodey, JARVIS, heck even Fury – anymore. He can't laugh with them, laugh at them anymore… Can't see them, can't 'accidentally' jab them with sharp objects to see how they'd react, can't show off how smart he is to them, can't…

"Okay brain, now's a good time to shut up!" he yelled aloud, barely breaking the deafening silence. He was trying desperately not to cry because Stark men do not cry but really there was no point – he was alone and, for the first time in his life, he was lonely.

Just as he was thinking this he saw a flash of orange. But… that colour couldn't be here, shouldn't be here! He'd know that colour anywhere – that was his favourite colour because that was the colour of Pepper's hair. His heart soared. He wasn't alone because he still had his friends, his family he just couldn't see them. He wasn't alone, he could never be rid of them. Even though he was dead, they were still with him and that's all that mattered to him.

Everything went black.


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: Aloha! Btw I have actually no idea what I'm doing but oh well… I hope you enjoyed the last chapter… or prologue… or whatever you want to label it. Anyways, this next chapter is hopefully gonna actually explain some things. This story is gonna be based off the films coz I've never read the comics (don't kill me!) and it's probably gonna be a 'history-is-repeating-itself' moment for a while… Still not sure what I want to do with this story. I'll decide soon… Probably… Yeah probably not. Bear with me. Also, Tony is 15 when his parents die (for reasons that even I'm not entirely sure about myself) just coz… And Jarvis (human version) is still alive. I will also probably add in the arc reactor at some point (coz I like it and, again, reasons). Anyways, au revoir!**

Growing up, Toni had always been a bit strange. She edged around every person, studying them closely, watching their every movement. If James hadn't known better, which he did, he would've said someone close to her had hurt her, quite recently too. Well, there _was_ the car crash that killed her parents and Obadiah but that had been an accident not directly aimed at her… Toni was confusing. She was a genius and incredibly outspoken (often quite offensive with the way she threw around words) but at the same time she was cautious, always checking the coast was clear before rushing in. She was unpredictable and usually a danger, both to herself and others who were unlucky enough to be picked as her partner for science experiments. There was rarely a dull moment with Toni as his friend that was for sure. He chuckled.

"Are you just gonna stand there smiling to yourself like a creepy pedophile?" Toni. Swinging round to face her, James smiled.

"You're here early."

"Yeah well, Jarvis said I shouldn't be late on the first day back," Toni said, shrugging. Edwin Jarvis, Toni's butler, had always taken Toni's education seriously even though Toni herself hadn't.

"Well, when you see him next, tell him I appreciate not having to chase you myself." he replied. Toni mock-saluted him.

"Whatever you say, boss." Nudging her, James laughed.

"Come on let's go in." So in they went.

His lessons were pretty dull. Between this and the fact that Toni had been nattering in his ear the whole time about one thing or another, he didn't really learn anything. Toni never listened in lessons yet she always got top marks but James wasn't Toni meaning he did have to listen and, when he had someone talking about entirely different topics very passionately sat beside him, he found it very difficult to concentrate. It was lunch, over halfway through the day now, he noted. Toni was sitting opposite him, still chattering away at 100 miles per hour, her lunch untouched. James had long since given up trying to listen when it was obvious he didn't understand about 99% of what Toni was going on about.

"Rhodey? Hey, Rhodey!" It was Toni's nickname for James - Rhodey because his last name was Rhodes and, according to Toni, ' S's were _so_ last month'.

"Hmm?" he answered not really paying attention.

"Were you even listening?"

"Um… No?"

"I thought so." James sighed. Toni tended to get funny when she worked out he wasn't listening and she always did eventually.

"Look, Toni, I'm sorry. But when you're talking so fast I can't get a word in edgeways or going on about some incredibly complex and brilliant theory of yours, I tend to get lost." The blunt truth was sometimes the only way to get through to Toni. He expected her to get annoyed at him or tell him he wasn't as smart as her and therefore, would benefit from listening to her ideas. Instead, she looked down and muttered so quietly he barely heard her,

"It's not a theory." He was completely confused. Never, in all the time that he'd known her, had she sounded so certain about one of her ideas. "It works, I know it does."

"What do you mean?" he was feeling a bit guilty, he hadn't been listening so he had no idea what she meant by 'it'. "What works?" Toni cleared her throat.

"It doesn't matter," she said before getting up and leaving, taking her lunch with her. That was strange… She never did that. Whatever he hadn't listened to had obviously been important to her. He'd talk to her later about it – she had the same lessons as him so he'd see her there. Hopefully, she wouldn't be mad at him… or sarcastic - sometimes sarcasm was worse. Getting up, he checked his timetable and went off to his next lesson, already planning out what he was going to say to her.

Toni wasn't in the next lesson. James sat down in his place, feeling a bit worried and guilty but also angry at the same time. Angry that she'd let what he said upset her so much she hadn't come to her lesson and had to sit next to him. Part of him wanted to go and find her but another part – the part that wasn't being entirely logical and, undoubtedly, was the easier option here – snarled ' Let her sulk, she'll come crawling back sooner or later.' He went with the easier option.

Toni appeared halfway through the lesson, paler than usual and breathing hard like she'd just run a marathon.

"Sorry." She croaked to the teacher, "I lost track of time." The teacher didn't look convinced but sent her to sit down anyway. She took her seat next to James, chucking her bag under the desk as she sat down.

"So where've you been?" James asked.

"Busy." was the reply, not even a hint of sarcasm - that was new. James frowned. Now that she was sitting next to him, he could see that she was sweating. She looked ill but that didn't make sense – she was fine not even an hour ago, surely she couldn't have gotten sick in that time. Mentally shrugging, he turned away and devoted his whole attention to listening to what the teacher was saying; making the occasional note or two when he felt it was necessary. If he hadn't been so engrossed in the lesson, he would've seen Toni wince and rub the centre of her chest like there was something there that was paining her.


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: Okay so last part, if you didn't realise was in Rhodey's (third-person) POV, this chapter is gonna be in Toni's (third-person) POV (yay!) or it should be... I've never been great at sticking to one POV while writing in third-person. Also this is probably not gonna be accurate at all (my reasoning for this is the arc reactor is technically a magnet and metal is attracted to magnets so maybe there'd be trouble with metal things in cafes and restaurants... yeah I doubt that's how the reactor works but oh well!). I'm sorry this chapter is pretty rubbish – I wrote this quite late at night so it's not particularly good and there are a lot of short sentences... This whole chapter basically revolves around the arc reactor and Toni trying to keep it hidden. Anyways, hope you enjoy. Au revoir!**

 **Oh yeah and I don't own Marvel or any of the characters (or places!) mentioned in this story.**

 _ **I'm sorry I only just realised it got messed up! I hope this fixes it!**_

Rhodey had brought Toni to town for some 'stress-free' time. Ha! Like that was going to happen. Toni was always stressed – her life was barely balanced on a thin wire and if that wire snapped things would start to go downhill very fast. Normally, she would've said no (because it was a weekend and she didn't get up anytime before 6pm on a weekend unless she had to) but Jarvis had 'convinced' (not left her alone until she agreed) her to and so here she was. She sighed, slumping even further in her seat. She hadn't even met up with Rhodey yet and already she wanted to get off the bus (yet another of Jarvis' 'good' ideas) and get the first bus that came back home. She was feeling achy and tired. She hadn't slept particularly well last night – her nightmares had been incredibly vivid - and she wasn't feeling great either. She just wanted to go to bed, close her eyes and sleep... Yeah that sounded like a good idea... Her eyes slowly slipped shut only to be jerked open when they went over a bump in the road that felt magnified ten times. Her head had whacked against the window when they had hit the bump and now she sat rubbing it, glaring at anyone who dared to look at her. This, she thought to herself, was going to be a long day.

When she eventually got off the bus (at the correct stop too, point for her) she had stared glumly at the bleak town she was about to enter and decided she didn't want to be here. She was just about to turn around and start walking down to the next bus stop when she heard someone yell her name. She cursed silently. It was Rhodey. She plastered a smile onto her face and turned to face him.

"I was wondering when you were gonna turn up," He admitted to her. "I was worried you weren't coming." She snorted.

"Didn't have much of a choice. Jarvis basically shoved me out the door." She said it jokingly but she meant it. "So what are we actually doing?"

"I didn't know if you'd had anything to eat or not yet so I thought I'd wait for you to get here first." He replied.

"No I haven't eaten. Let's get food. Know any good restaurants? I was thinking maybe something like the Ritz or-"

"How about we go to a café?" Rhodey suggested.

"Cafe? Never been to one of them." Toni said.

"Well then, it'll be a new experience." Toni shrugged. It couldn't hurt to try surely.

"Lead the way." She said, gesturing for him to go in front. "Just make it somewhere posh. And fancy." As she followed him through the town, she glanced at all the shops as she passed them, wondering what each one was and seeing if she could work it out with just the name. Most of them she got easily but a few she just couldn't get her head around why they were called that. When Rhodey stopped, Toni wasn't expecting it and so she promptly walked into him. She took a few steps back and stared up at the café.

"Costa?" She asked, indignant – Costa wasn't particularly posh or fancy. "Why costa?"

"Because I like Costa." came the reply. Rhodey walked through into the shop. Grumbling, Toni followed him in. After thoroughly scanning the menu and deciding on the most expensive things she could find, Toni chose a table and sat down, leaving Rhodey to bring their food and drinks over. She leaned over and rested her face on the table. She was exhausted. She probably would've fallen asleep had she not heard the sound of metal scraping over wood. Looking up, she saw the prongs of the fork inches from her face. She jerked backwards, the legs of the chair making an ear-splitting screeching sound. The fork followed the movement – skittering along the edge of the table before clattering to the ground. Toni let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding.

"Well look at that," she muttered to herself. "They use real metal cutlery." She had been an idiot. She'd had this problem before – metal was generally attracted to magnets, it's the reason why Jarvis had made sure they only used plastic cutlery. Toni groaned. She couldn't let Rhodey find out her secret meaning she would have a fun time the whole time they were here. It was at that moment – when Toni was backed away from the table, glaring the knife and spoon like they were going to attack her at any moment (which wasn't completely insane as she'd just been assaulted by the fork) - that Rhodey came over, giving her a strange look.

"I brought your stuff over," he said. Toni snorted.

"I didn't notice." She replied sarcastically. Rhodey just rolled his eyes and sat down.

"Toni, why are you sitting so far away from the table?" He asked.

"I like the space." Came the reply.

"I think you should tuck in." Rhodey told her. He set her plate down in front of her, followed soon after by her drink. The shrieking of the chair legs on the floor as Toni dragged her chair closer to the table filled the air. She grabbed her knife and...

"Hey Rhodey?"

"Yes Toni?"

"Can you get me another fork?"

"What's wrong with the one you have now?"

"Oh nothing just... It's on the floor." Rhodey sighed tiredly as if he was used to having these kind of conversations with his friend.

"And why's it on the floor?" He asked, not really expecting a sensible answer. He didn't get one.

"It was looking at me funny."

"Of course it was." He handed Toni his fork and got up to get another one for himself. As he was leaving, Toni breathed a small sigh of relief. He didn't notice – that was good. Now she just had to make sure no more cutlery attack- She broke off her thoughts to stop a spoon from committing spoon-icide. She set it down just as the knife decided to try and follow. When Rhodey returned, she was leaning as far back from the table as possible, clutching a knife in one hand, a spoon in the other and the fork clamped firmly in her mouth. Now Rhodey was used to his friend acting weirdly – often she didn't realise what she was doing was weird – but this... This was strange, even for her. He cleared his throat. She looked up. When she saw him, her eyes widened and she yanked the fork out of her mouth.

"Hi." She said.

"Hi." He replied. "Should I be worried about what that was just now?"

"Nope, just testing to see whether the cutlery's balanced." She assured him. She smiled at him. He sat down. "It is if you wanted to know."

"Okay then..." Yup his friend was weird alright - hopefully that's all he'd think, Tony thought nervously. He started eating. All the time Toni was hunched over the table, eating or taking a sip from her drink, she kept a firm hand on the cutlery. Every time she took her hand off them for even a second, they would instantly skitter across the table towards her. She was praying that Rhodey didn't notice this, and he didn't seem to, but she caught him staring at her hand once or twice after she'd just had to catch the cutlery again.

When they finally left, Toni was more than happy. She felt immediately better now she was outside in the fresh air with no small metal things racing towards her every five seconds. She was happy enough that she decided to forget how much she had wanted to go home and agreed enthusiastically to Rhodey's suggestion of going to the cinema. She didn't think of any of the reasons why going to a pitch-black room was a very bad idea at the time. When they got there, they bought their tickets at the ticket machine (Toni was sure she'd seen it in a magazine from the 1980's), filled their pick-n-mix bags up to the top full of sweets (Toni's 'treat'), and grabbed two bags of popcorn – one sweet and one salted. Once they'd got everything they wanted ("Needed!" Toni said) they made their way to Screen 3. The adverts were just ending as they entered and took their seats.

"Missed the ads." Rhodey observed.

"Great! I always hated those." Toni replied.

"Do you even know what an ad is?" He asked.

"Yup. They're annoying." Rhodey shook his head in disbelief. He opened his mouth to say something but, just then, the lights went out and the screen seemed to stretch before their eyes. Toni, who wasn't expecting it, let out a small squeak.

"Shh! The film's starting." Rhodey whispered to her.

"I didn't realise, thanks for telling me." She muttered as a reply but, nevertheless, she stopped talking and turned to watch the film.

If you asked her about it now, she would say she didn't know when she quite realised but suddenly she did the maths and worked out that 1. the padding meant to hide the glow of the reactor was almost non-existent (because it's the middle of summer and the padding adds layers which are not necessary when it's 40°C outside) and 2. she had messed up – again! Not just once but twice! Twice in one day. She had almost let out a loud sigh then but she had held it back – just. She couldn't stop herself from tensing up and becoming suddenly alert though. She hadn't thought about what she would do if they went to an incredibly dark room – she had expected that they would stay in reasonably well-lit areas after all and she couldn't be expected to anticipate everything. There was nothing she could do about it now... Or was there? Silently praying that Rhodey hadn't noticed anything, she crossed her arms over her chest, effectively (or as effectively as she could manage at that moment in time) blocking out the light. She stayed like that for the rest of the movie – bending completely over if she wanted some popcorn or sweets. All in all, she doubted Rhodey noticed and, if he did, would think nothing of it – she was always being a bit weird (she liked to call it eccentric though Rhodey once told her that 'if you're eccentric, I'm a goat' and honestly, maybe he's the weird one if he really believes he's a goat). When the film finished and they eventually left, it was all Toni could do to stop herself from letting out a sigh of relief.

"Where to now, Colonel?" 'Colonel' was something Toni had started calling Rhodey recently. She'd had a dream about Rhodey and herself (only she was male of all things, sometimes she questioned her own mind) where Rhodey had been a colonel and at school the next day she had accidentally referred to him as Colonel. Since then the nickname had stuck.

"Don't know. It's getting a bit late though. Wouldn't Jarvis prefer you to go home?" He had a point. She couldn't let him find that out though.

"Nah it's not late – midnight is late." She shrugged. "As for Jarvis, he knows me."

"That's not an excuse."

"Never said it was." Rhodey stared Toni right in the eyes - Toni stared back. Their stare-off continued for a while, neither could blink, neither could move, this could only end if one backed down and neither could. These kind of things happened a lot – they were equally stubborn – usually the only way to end it was by interruption from someone or something else but no one would do that when they were in town. If Toni was completely honest with herself, she wanted to go home – even though she'd had fun (which she obviously hadn't, what are you talking about?) – she couldn't ignore the tiredness that was slowly seeping through her bones. She blinked and turned away. To say Rhodey was astounded was an understatement – he looked as though his lower jaw might fall off if he kept his mouth open any longer.

Toni had just backed down – Toni, Toni Stark, had given up!

"Yes the inside of your mouth is really very pretty." Toni informed Rhodey, sarcasm dripping from her words. Rhodey shut his mouth with a snap. He wanted to ask Toni why she had given up, why she had chosen to lose when he himself was prepared to back down but instead he said,

"Would you like me to come with you?" Toni shrugged.

"If you want to." Rhodey nodded. This was Toni's way of saying that yes, she did want company but she couldn't say that because that would be showing weakness and Starks cannot show weakness. Toni mentally rolled her eyes at that – she knew that's what Rhodey would think and maybe it was just a little bit true – a really teeny, tiny, almost insignificantly small, maybe but a maybe nonetheless (though she would never say that out loud).

"Come on then, let's go wait for the bus then." He marched off, Toni following close behind.

When they eventually got to the bus stop that was closest to Toni's house, Toni was half asleep and not really paying attention anymore – she was glad Rhodey was there otherwise she would probably be a splat on someone's tire at this point. They walked the remaining few metres to Toni's house side-by-side, both silent, both exhausted. It really was quite late, Toni thought a little guiltily. And Rhodey still had to make his own way home afterwards. Suddenly Toni was struck with an idea so brilliant it rivalled Einstein's theory and Newton's discovery.

"Hey Rhodey do you wanna stay for a sleepover?" Okay, maybe not.

"Mmm?" Came the reply.

"Do. You. Want. To. Stay. For. A. Sleepover." She repeated slowly. "I mean it's quite late and it's not like you're gonna catch a bus anytime soon so you might as well." She winced internally, now it sounded like she was daring him and she should really learn to think about what she's saying before she's saying it.

"Dunno. If Jarvis is okay with it then yeah."

"Jarvis doesn't run the house. Well technically he does but technically I'm the owner of the house and- you know what? It's too late to be technical." Somewhere in her brain, a memory stirred; He sighed, well he would've if he could but he technically wasn't alive so he technically wasn't breathing so he technically couldn't breathe and… Who's he kidding? He's dead! There's nothing technical-

She pushed the memory to one side. She got memories like that a lot – she wasn't even sure if they were memories but that's what she called them and they always seemed to be incredibly realistic – more realistic than any of her actual dreams. Normally they only came at night when she asleep but recently they'd been coming during the day too. Toni remembered the first time she had ever had a memory-nightmare – it seemed ages ago now but it was only from a few years ago. She had dreamt that she was in a desert and presenting some kind of weapon to watching soldiers, then she was in a van driving along and taking a picture with a young soldier, then she watched as a bomb exploded beside her and pain erupted in her chest, suddenly she was in a cave and there was pain, pain and blood and oh the pain – it was never ending, it was absolute, it was everywhere and everything. She woke up but she was still in the dream and then she saw the battery and waves of fear and panic washed over her and she couldn't breathe and she was cold, so cold. She created a glowing blue circle of light and then the 'operation' and it was in her chest. Suddenly the scene changed and she building something – was that... armour? - and then she was strapped to something and unable to move – she realised it was the armour.

"We need more time." She didn't know why but those words filled her with dread.

"No," she felt her lips move, "Stick to the plan!" What plan? "Stick to the plan! Yinsen!" But the other guy – Yinsen, she assumed – didn't listen. He ran, yelling, gun pointed high, bullets firing and clattering to the ground uselessly. The last thing she remembered before she woke up was she was bending over Yinsen, his words strangely muffled and hard to make out:

"Don't waste your life..." And then she was awake and all she could see was blue light in the dark room – the same blue light from the dream – and she panicked. She screamed and shrieked, clawing at the thing that was in her chest, the thing that should not be there, that wasn't there before. And Obadiah had come running and had seen the blue glow. For one terrifying moment, Toni was sure that something not unlike greed had flickered across Obadiah's face but it was gone as quick as it came and Toni could never be certain that she had seen it and it wasn't just her eyes playing tricks on her. That thought still terrified her even though she knew Obadiah was dead now and couldn't hurt her.

"Toni? Hey Toni?" Rhodey's voice broke her out of her thoughts. "Did you even hear a word I just said?"

"Nope." She answered honestly.

"Well, I'm not repeating it. We're at your house now anyway." Toni looked up.

"So we are." She pulled out her keys (which didn't resemble keys as such, more like cards) and fiddled with the door, trying to unlock it. "You definitely okay with staying over tonight?" In all honesty, it was more her that would have a problem with it than Rhodey. She usually slept with the lights off and the padding that her daytime shirts were all lined with was uncomfortable to sleep in. Oh well, she could tough it out for one night, surely. She didn't hear Rhodey's answer as, at that moment, Jarvis decided to make himself known.

"Miss Stark, might I remind you that I was expecting you home approximately two hours, fifty-seven minutes and eight seconds earlier." He informed her.

"Yeah sorry about that. Anyway I'm back now after... whatever time you just said. Oh yeah and Rhodey's staying over tonight." She strutted into the house.

"Miss Stark!" Jeez, Jarvis was persistent when he wanted to be.

"Yeah?" She replied, spinning around to face him.

"Are you sure that having Mr Rhodes round for the night is a good idea?"

"Yeah, actually I am. One of my best I'd say."

"You know what I'm talking about, Miss Stark." Jarvis said with a lowered voice.

"Yes, I do. I'm tired and not bothered tonight. I'll just manage." Toni paused. "Or you can free up one of the guest rooms..."

"Miss Stark I-"

"No, you're right, that's too difficult. And it's late and- Jarvis just go with it. It will work out, most of my plans do."

"Fine." And he moved out of the way, letting Toni and Rhodey pass.

"What was that about?" Rhodey asked when they eventually got to Toni's bedroom.

"What?" Toni was tired and really couldn't deal with Rhodey's questions right now.

"Downstairs with Jarvis."

"Oh nothing. Just something I was supposed to do and wasn't bothered to." Sighing, she flung herself on her bed, instantly sinking into the soft duvet. She relaxed into the mattress.

Silence.

"Um, Toni...?" Came the tentative voice from the other end of the room.

"Mmm."

"Do you have anything I could change into?"

"Ask Jarvis."

"Fine." She heard Rhodey's footsteps retreating. As the door clicked closed behind him, she hauled herself to her feet. Grabbing the first top she could find with padding sufficient enough to hide the glow from the reactor, she stumbled into her en suite and changed her clothes. She grimaced as she felt the now-familiar scratchy feel of the padding. Oh how she hated it. Note to self: get a top made with softer padding. She brushed her teeth before staggering back out and collapsing, for the second time, onto her bed. She didn't hear Rhodey come back in but she saw the lights switch off. She turned over and covered herself with the duvet, preparing to go to sleep. It was weird - after her initial reaction all those years ago to waking up and finding herself with the reactor, one would think she would hate it but she had gotten used to it - and now, looking into the darkness devoid of pale blue light, she realised that she found the light reassuring.


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: I wasn't gonna actually write this part for a while yet but I managed to lose my tablet meaning I don't have anything (excluding my phone) to play on atm. Basically I got bored and decided to write. Hopefully I'll a) finish this chapter a lot quicker than the last one and b) get my tablet back soon. It's quite funny actually, earlier today I had a thought that my whole life is practically on my tablet so if I lose it I'm pretty much screwed. I think it was a warning. It's fine though coz I know where it is and it's safe so now I just have to play the waiting game for a while. Anyways, this chapter is less arc-centric. It's gonna be shorter than the last chapter too. Rhodey POV(again third person coz I don't do first like ever). Btw I'm British so sorry if there's any confusion on some words. (Seriously, the amount of times I wrote 'Rhodey' then had to go back and change it coz Rhodey doesn't call himself that!) After writing this chapter, I really wanna play Twister. keeps messing up my chapters! Grrr! Anyways, hopefully all fixed now. Hope you enjoy! Au revoir!**

Waking up that morning was... different. Normally James would jump out of bed bright and early so he had enough time to get everything done. This particular morning he woke up late. When he opened his eyes the first thing he saw was the slightly muted glare of sunlight through the curtains. He had overslept – whoops. In all honesty, he didn't mind. He hardly ever got a lie-in and when he did he only stayed in his bed for about five minutes before he forced himself to get up but, it must've been something about Toni's beds, he just couldn't bring himself to fully wake up just yet.

"Hey sleepyhead." James opened his eyes and looked over at the speaker.

"No." Was all he said.

"No what? I haven't even said anything yet!" Toni said, hand over her heart, feigning hurt.

"No it's not possible," he murmured just loud enough for Toni to hear. "It's not possible you're awake before me."

"Nah it is." Toni sat, leaning back in the chair she was sitting in. "Jarvis woke me up. I needed to fix th-" she cleared her throat. "Needed to do something." She finished. James studied her face – why did she suddenly cut herself off? What was she about to say that James couldn't know? Was it something to do with the way the cutlery seemed attracted to her and that strange blue light in the cinema? Yes, James had noticed these things. He might not be as smart as his friend, but he definitely wasn't an idiot, and Toni's behaviour yesterday was far from normal – even for her. He might be overthinking things but one thing was certain: whatever Toni was hiding, whatever she didn't want him to know, was something important and he was going to find out what it was.

"-dey? Rhodey!" He was brought out of his thoughts by Toni shaking him. "Good you're listening. Thought you'd fallen asleep again or something. Anyway, what do you want for breakfast? We got cooked breakfast - according to Jarvis they're really popular in Britain - cereal," she pulled a face as if she couldn't imagine anyone wanting to eat cereal, "I think we've got some crisps an-"

"Toni you don't eat crisps for breakfast." He interrupted, his friend's unusual habits once again making an appearance.

"Wha- What?" Toni stuttered, a look of horror had made it's appearance on her face at James' words. "But... When do you eat them then?"

"Um... I dunno, lunch maybe?" James replied, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Lunch?" Toni scoffed. "Now I know you're lying to me." James shook his head in disbelief, smiling slightly. Toni was the best person to hang out with sometimes what with her crazy view on life and constant energy - not that he'd ever tell her that.

"Anyway, you want breakfast?"

Half an hour later, James had eaten breakfast. He was still trying to explain to Toni why you don't eat crisps for breakfast when Jarvis walked in, looking very agitated. He was staring at the tablet (was it called a StarkPad?) in his hands with a mixed expression of shock and anger. He didn't seem to notice them.

"Jarvis? Are you alright?" James asked. He had tried to make his voice as gentle as possible so he didn't scare the British butler but Jarvis still jumped ten feet in the air. The tablet clattered to the ground. James studied the display on the tablet – it wasn't particularly close to him but he could make out some of it. It was a picture of a circular... thing which appeared to be overlaid with a bunch of calculations and complicated sciency-mumbo-jumbo he couldn't quite read properly. He didn't really understand any of it but he wasn't looking at the sums. His attention was caught by the circular object in the centre of the screen. It looked incredibly complex and technical but he wasn't put off by that for once. No, he wasn't staring, wide-eyed and confused, at any of that. He was looking at the colour. The circular device was blue, the exact same colour he had caught a glimpse of in the cinema. Composing himself, Jarvis picked up the tablet and turned to Toni and Rhodey.

"Yes, Master Rhodey, I'm fine." Great, even Jarvis called him Rhodey.

"Okay... Just... Yeah good." James couldn't think of anything else to say so he didn't.

"Miss," Jarvis said, turning to Toni. "I would advise you-"

"I'll do it later." Toni interrupted – quite rudely in James' opinion. If he didn't know any better (which he did), he wouldn't said there was a slight urgency with which Toni spoke, as if Jarvis was mentioning something Toni didn't like to talk about.

"Miss," Jarvis said, more sternly this time. "I strongly recommend you go an-"

"Jarvis," Toni seemed completely calm but James knew from experience that it was just a front – she could sound cool and composed but secretly be plotting ways to kill you. "I'll do it later, I promise. We have a guest now though." Jarvis sighed.

"As you wish, Miss. Don't leave it too late." And with that he promptly marched out of the room, eyes once again glued to the tablet. Once Jarvis was gone, Toni seemed to deflate.

"What was that all about?" James asked, completely confused.

"Homework." Came the reply. James frowned. Toni always did the homework the day they got it – she always told him it was so easy she could do it in her sleep. Toni was the biggest, most complicated mystery he had ever had the privilege to meet. A mystery which was confusing and nothing seemed to quite add up but when James found those last few pieces it would all fall into place – and he would find them.

"So what do you want to do?" Toni asked him. She was sitting on the counter, her legs swinging wildly.

"Dunno. What d'you have?"

"Did you just ask me what we have?" She asked him, shocked.

"Yeah."

"A lot of stuff. Mostly boring stuff. Seriously though," she turned to him. "What do you want to do?" There was a lot he wanted: He wanted Toni to tell him what she was hiding, he wanted to know what the weird blue light was, he wanted to know what it was Jarvis was trying to get Toni to do. Instead he said;

"Do you have any good games?"

An hour later found Toni and Rhodey entangled, sweaty and both equally competitive.

"I'm gonna win, Rhodey. Just warning you," Toni told him, her voice slightly strained. "You should probably give up now."

"Yeah you probably will," James replied. It was taking all he had to remain upright. "You've always been one for playing dirty."

"Are you insinuating that I'm cheating over there Colonel?" Toni asked teasingly.

"I never said that." Rhodey said, smirking.

"Left foot to blue," was the next command.

"Oh god!" Toni cried, twisting round to plant her foot on the blue spot behind her. Her other foot was on a green spot, her right hand on a yellow and her left on a red. She definitely didn't look comfortable.

"Right foot to green," James' turn just had to be impossible.

"'Scuse me," he said as he lifted his foot over Toni to land on the green splodge on the other side of the mat. His other foot was on a blue and both his hands were on red. It had helped. "You know I think I might actually win this." It was just his luck that Jarvis decided to enter when he was practically on top of Toni.

"Miss, Rhodey's parents have..." Jarvis cleared his throat. James felt his cheeks go red – he knew this must look pretty bad.

"Hey Jarvis! I found this in the old lab. Figured you wouldn't mind if we used it," Toni informed him.

"No, Miss, that is fine," Jarvis replied. "I came to tell you that Master Rhodey's parent's called to ask where he is."

"Tell them he's a little tied up at the moment."

"When should I tell them to expect him?" Jarvis asked, making a quick note on his tablet.

"In..." Toni paused to try and look at her watch without dislodging any of her other limbs. "Forty-five minutes sound good?"

"As you wish, Miss." And Jarvis walked out.

"So where were we?" Toni asked.

"I was about to beat your sorry ass." James responded, trying not to laugh.

"You wish, Rhodey. You wish." And so the game continued. As it turned out, James was wrong. Toni won and, for once, she didn't cheat in order to achieve it.


	5. Quick Message

**Hello, it's me!**

 **Said Adele...**

 **Anyways. Sorry I haven't updated this story in a** ** _long_** **time, I've been struggling with ideas and where I want the story to go so I took a break to think through it and then... well... You know the rest.**

 **So, instead of posting other stories and in the A/N saying 'Next chapter of TTTC coming soon hopefully!', I've decided that I'm going to stop posting TTTC a chapter at a time. I'm going to decide where TTTC is going, finish it, then (because I'm not a nice person), upload maybe one or two chapters a week.**

 **Some other things that I feel I should mention:**

 **I personally hate the really long stories that have like 100 chapters and counting so TTTC will probably be 30 chapters MAX.**

 **I don't know when I'll a) get the time to completely finish TTTC and b) decide that it's good enough to be uploaded so bear with me.**

 **Next chapter should, in theory, start bringing the other Avengers into it, in case you wanted to know that.**

 **I'll try and tell you if anything changes but I don't know the future so obviously I can't prepare for everything.**

 **Okay, I'd say that's enough for now. I'm going to go start writing now.**

 **Just to clarify: I am** ** _NOT_** **giving up on this story and I shall try to finish it soon.**

 **Bye!**


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